Any Way You Fight It

by Monique McDonell

  "Do you want to join us?" Braydon asked.

  I said, "No" just as Luke said, "Yes."

  Well, if we were going for weird, this was it. God bless Piper and Braydon who prattled on, oblivious to the situation.

  "So, when did you two meet?" Luke asked.

  "Yesterday, Lucy here introduced us."

  "Did she now?" Luke said, giving her a solemn gaze. Lucy averted her eyes and waved down some drinks.

  The conversation wasn't too awkward, but I felt . . . odd. I didn't have anything to apologize for. I owed Luke nothing. I was a free agent, and I could go out for drinks with whomever I wanted. But it didn't feel that way.

  I still felt bad about our phone call yesterday and this made it worse.

  And then Braydon said, "Well, I better head off; it's a long drive home. This was fun. We should do it again, Cherie."

  "We definitely should."

  "Hey, can you drop me home, Braydon? It'll save Chase coming to get me," Lucy added.

  "Sure no problem." They each kissed my cheek and were gone.

  "I'm out," said Piper. "My hot hubby awaits."

  "I don't think you should talk about my cousin that way, honey. And isn't that unprofessional in front of Luke?"

  "Sorry, Luke, I'm sure you already noticed my hubby is a spunk!"

  "What's a spunk?"

  "Cherie can translate. I'll leave you singles to it!" And she was gone.

  "Well, this hasn't been awkward at all, has it?" said Luke.

  And I had to laugh. "Nope, not at all!"

  Chapter 10

  I didn't want to laugh, but here I was in O'Shaunnessy's with Luke only a day after telling him I couldn't meet him.

  "So, that guy you have time for, me not so much?"

  "Seems like it."

  "I guess that dinner was worse than I thought. I mean look, my clothes are clean and I even brush my hair. Does that mean nothing to you, woman?"

  "He's not that bad!" I laughed.

  "Cherie, seriously, the dude looked like he slept in that outfit. Who goes on a date looking like that?"

  "Shipwrights do apparently, and if you don't shut up, I'll explain at length what a shipwright does."

  "Okay, consider me silenced." He took a swig of his beer and his expression turned serious. "Why would you even be out with that guy?"

  "He asked, and he seemed nice, and . . ."

  "Please!" He sighed.

  "Maybe I'm not as shallow as you; you can't always judge a book by its cover." I didn't need to justify myself to him, but I certainly could.

  "Did you date him because he is . . . what was Piper's word, a spank?"

  "Spunk, the word is spunk not spank, it means hottie. And he kind of is, so I'm sure that was a factor. Anyway, it was a drink not a date, and you, my friend, don't get a say in who I do or do not date. I have brothers, a mother, a father, and a Nona all with their oars in that water. You may keep yours out."

  "Sorry. It's just . . ."

  "What?"

  "I like you. I get that you don't like me, that way, anymore, but still, Cherie, you deserve so much better."

  He was only half right. I did deserve better, but I totally still liked him exactly that way and the blush that went from my toes to my cheeks, stopping at several places along the way, proved it to me.

  "You're right, I do, but sometimes you have to take a chance." I shrugged. What more was there to say?

  "Why won't you take a chance on me then?"

  "Because you and I already had our chance, and we took it and it didn't work out."

  "We were kids."

  "I know." I sipped my drink. I obviously sounded confident and assured but I wasn't. I wanted to lean over the table and kiss that man senseless, but I wouldn't because, first of all, I was in the middle of O'Shaunnessy's and mainly because I'd never met a man with so much potential to break my heart. In the wee hours of the night when I was honest with myself, I already knew I'd never gotten over him last time. I couldn't risk it twice. If I spent another ten years recovering, I'd be forty. I'd be a single forty-year-old woman and that wasn't anywhere near what I had planned for my life.

  "And you don't think it's worth another shot?"

  I shook my head. "I like you Luke, and, at the risk of sounding like a cliché, I really enjoy your company. I don't want things to be weird between us, but how about we stick to friends?"

  "Friends. The kiss of death," he said, shaking his head.

  "I'm afraid it's that or nothing."

  "Well, as your friend I have to tell you, don't go on a second date with that guy."

  "Okay, for the sake of our friendship I'll oblige."

  #

  The next day my new friend Luke brought me a latte on his way past my office.

  "I was going to bring you a Frozen Coke for old-time's sake, but I wasn't sure how that would go down first thing in the morning . . .”

  "This," I said, taking a long sip, "is a much better choice."

  "Your office is nice," he said. He'd been here before, of course, but we weren't friends then.

  "Thanks. I kind of have it the way I like it now. It's taken a while."

  "It's very sleek."

  It was sleek. I had my listed houses hanging in the windows in clear frames, and inside the floor was polished concrete. I had red leather sofas and chrome furniture. It had clean lines and looked professional. I tended to wear black and red and bold colors so that I, too, fit with the space. "That's what I was going for."

  "Your branding is excellent."

  "I guess that business degree was worth it after all," I said, taking another fortifying sip of my latte.

  His face looked puzzled. "I thought you were going to be a psych major."

  "Changed my mind." We were friends apparently but there was no way I was telling him he was the reason I changed my mind. "Anyway, it was a good choice for me. I'd have been a terrible psychologist."

  "But you could have used your skills in your amateur matchmaking."

  "The girls told you about that, huh?" He nodded. "Turns out I have a gift, no psych major required."

  "That's an interesting hobby."

  "It's not a hobby as such. Just something I do when I see two people who I know are destined to be together . . . I just kind of assist them down that path."

  "Manipulate them you mean," he said, chuckling.

  "That's such an ugly word." I laughed, too. "I encourage, I guide . . ."

  "Whatever, well, I better guide my butt to the kitchen at Piper's. They start so early over there I feel like I'm late every day."

  "Oh, I know. I've helped out in emergencies before, and by the time I get in here I already feel like I've done a day's work."

  "I bet. You're lucky to have such good friends."

  "That I am."

  "I don't suppose I can talk you into doing something tonight? The downside of working with those loved-up early risers is they really don't want to keep me company after hours."

  "I have a family dinner, sorry. I wouldn't put anyone through that."

  "I never met your family properly. I bet the food is good."

  "The food will be great, but you would be seriously grilled."

  "I can take it."

  "You're saying you want to come to my mother's for dinner?"

  "I am."

  I didn't know what to make of that. It was a seriously bad idea. Maybe not for him but for me. Still, it would test the waters on my mother's resolve that it was now acceptable for me to date a non-Italian. Not that we were dating of course, but she would presume I was dating any guy I brought home.

  "Well, you may come at your own risk, but for the record—this was not my idea."

  "Duly noted."

  "Be here at five," I said. "We have to get Nona on the way."

  Chapter 11

  It was bumper-to-bumper traffic back to the house. I had called ahead to let Nona and my mother know I was bringing a friend.

  "I knew he was back," Nona
said, as if she had had a vision of Luke.

  "He's just a friend, Nona."

  "You keep telling yourself that." She was ornery for an old girl.

  My mother was thrilled to have a new person at her dinner table. The truth was she missed those days when my brothers and I dragged stray friends and acquaintances home from school or college to stay for the weekend or a meal. The woman enjoyed a crowd.

  "Excellent news. How long have you been seeing him?"

  "I'm not seeing him. He is a friend. He's working with Piper and he's lonely and over hotels, so what better diversion than a big old Italian family dinner."

  "There's nothing better!" she declared without the slightest hint of irony.

  "So what should I know about your family these days?" Of course he had known about them back then. Not personally beyond watching them cross the street, or in the case of my brothers, burn past him in their suped-up cars. He had known them through my stories, and I wondered how accurate he would find my descriptions now. We'd all changed since then.

  "Not much to know. All the boys are married to nice Italian girls, two have kids, all boys much to my mother's dismay, not that she'd say so, of course, but she is dying to buy some little pink outfits. My third sister-in-law is pregnant. They already know it's a boy and so do we, so Mom doesn't cry at the hospital, I think."

  He laughed. "So you're still the principessa then?"

  "You better believe it, buddy. And even when one of them produces a girl, she's going to have to fight me for that crown."

  He chuckled. "What makes you think it won't be you who has the girl?"

  "Well, it could be," I said, my tone considered. “But they have a head start on me because they are married and I'm not even in a relationship."

  "I suppose."

  I wasn't going to read into that cryptic response.

  "Nona and I kind of hang on the fringe a bit. She's less into the crowds even than me these days, I think. She only had my dad and my uncle, and I think she prefers a less frantic home than my mom. Anyway, that's all there is to tell. My dad is still the foreman at the mattress factory and my mom still serves on every church committee in the parish."

  We pulled into the driveway and my Nona was out the back door before I had a chance to pull on the handbrake.

  "Don't let her size fool you. She's formidable," I said, hopping out of the car in the hopes of intercepting her.

  "You're late."

  "I missed you, too, Nona," I said, leaning down to kiss her papery cheek. "The traffic was terrible. Nona, this is Luke Oberlin." Luke had exited the vehicle as well.

  "Oberlin, like the Oberlin's who lived across from your folks?" she asked me.

  "Yes. They were Luke's grandparents."

  "Ah," she said as if somehow everything made sense.

  "Quite the coincidence, isn't it?" I tried to keep things breezy.

  "Nice to meet you."

  "Where are your grandparents now?"

  "My grandfather passed and my grandmother is in a retirement community in California, near my parents."

  "I'm sorry to hear that. Your grandfather was a lovely man. He grew beautiful roses."

  "He did; they were his pride and joy," Luke replied.

  "Oh no, your mother was his pride and joy. She was so pretty." My grandmother turned to me. "Your father had quite a thing for her in high school. Don't tell your mother."

  "Really?" Of course that made sense. My Nona and Poppa had lived in the house my parents now owned. They gave it to them as a wedding present and moved here to this newer ranch house. "I didn't know that."

  "Of course not, it was a big secret. They don't think I knew, but the way he looked at her. How is she?"

  Luke seemed as dumbfounded by this revelation as I was. "Uh, fine. Working at Berkeley."

  "Good for her. Pretty and smart, like Cherie here."

  "Nona!"

  "What, I'm not telling him anything he doesn't know. It's not a secret."

  I sighed and Luke laughed. "You're right, she is both pretty and smart."

  "I need two minutes to change. Do not tell embarrassing stories," I said before racing upstairs to my apartment.

  If I'd known this morning how this day was going to play out, I would have laid my clothes out. Instead, I removed my pencil skirt and pulled on my best jeans that did wonderful things for my butt. I added a gray silk shell top and a pale pink cardigan with some subtle beading. I switched my earrings out for big hoops, slipped on some gray suede ballet flats, and I was ready. I didn't want Nona alone with Luke one second longer than absolutely necessary. She might have started in on her visions, and he did not need any encouragement.

  They were sitting at her kitchen table having coffee when I burst in the door. Apparently Nona was no longer so desperate to get on the road.

  "That was fast." Nona observed. The expression on her face was innocent, but I wouldn't know till later if that was just her acting ability. Then again, so many things would be said and done between now and the end of the evening perhaps whatever had happened during my quick change would fade into insignificance.

  "You look nice," Luke said. I was so worried about Nona I'd forgotten to even give Luke a look. He had a sweet smile on his face. The truth was this more casual version of me was probably a whole lot closer to the one he knew back in the day.

  "Thanks. It's always nice to get out of my work clothes. They're somewhat more formal."

  Nona stood up. "This is nicer, less sexy. You look pretty this way."

  "Thanks, I think."

  "We should go," Nona declared, taking her cup and Luke's to the sink and picking up her large black bag that seemed to be almost as big as she was. She headed to the back door.

  "For what it's worth," Luke whispered in my ear, "I still think you look sexy."

  Jeez Louise, what had I gotten myself into?

  #

  We were back in the car heading to Boston.

  My brother Tony had offered to drop Nona so I could take Luke to his hotel. He'd offered to catch a cab but my mother wouldn't hear of it.

  I let myself exhale when we turned out of the driveway. Part of me was thankful I hadn't been able to drink due to my driving commitments, but the rest of me could have murdered a scotch. Luke sat silently in the car beside me. I didn't know what he was thinking and I was afraid to ask.

  Once my mother had gotten word I was bringing a "friend" as she described him to everyone using air quotes all evening, she had extended the dinner invitation to most of the extended family. Piper and Aaron had even been invited but had the sense to decline. Piper had kindly sent me a text to wish me luck though.

  So the family dinner that would have been eleven adults and five children was in fact twenty adults and as many children. I could barely keep track of Luke during the evening as he was passed from one family member to the next. I was glad we had agreed on a simple backstory for our past. We'd known each other because he had spent time at the donut shop when he lived over the road but that was it. I didn't know if anyone was buying what we were selling or not.

  I had been asked when we met again, if he was Italian, and how long we'd been dating umpteen times and given the same answers on a loop. A couple of weeks ago through Piper, no he was definitely not Italian, and we were not dating, just friends.

  "So that was . . ." Luke seemed to be struggling for a word next to me.

  "Crazy? Embarrassing? Awkward? Amusing? All of the above?"

  He laughed. "Maybe the last one. It was also pretty fun."

  "I must have missed that bit," I said as the Charles River came into sight.

  "Come on, they're fun people and so welcoming. And that food! How come you're not all obese?"

  "I rejoined the gym lately."

  "Yeah, you don't need to, you look amazing. I'll be hitting the hotel gym tomorrow, my system may go in to shock." He gave his stomach a satisfied pat.

  "I'll grant you the food is good. Did you have Carmel's cannoli? Serious
ly divine."

  He held up his hand and spayed is fingers. "Five, I ate five. They were so good, and she kept coming back. I couldn't say no."

  "Of course not," I laughed. "It would have been rude."

  "Exactly."

  "Well, I tried to warn you, but truthfully, that was more than even I anticipated."

  "Everyone is very proud of you, you know. They really love you."

  "They do, heaven help me, they do." I sighed. That was the thing. My family was loud, crazy, and overbearing but their hearts were so well-meaning.

  "I kind of get now why dating the wrong guy would have been so hard back in the day. That's quite a force to push against, all those people with all those opinions."

  "Yeah, that was my whole world back then. I mean it still is to an extent, but I'm a grown-up and I've been out and seen what I want. I can pick and choose more now, the good and the bad."

  "And which was I, the good or the bad?"

  "Honestly, you were both," I said, turning onto the street his hotel was located on.

  "Come in for a drink."

  I shook my head. "Another time. Nona will be peering through the curtains to see I come home. I have to go to prove to the many non-believers that we are in fact friends without the air quotes."

  "I'm okay with being the kind with air quotes."

  "Sure you are. That's easy for you. You don't have all that to deal with. I bet your mama isn't calling from Berkeley to ask who you're dating."

  "No, she's not. I kind of wish she would though. It might be a change to be the focus of her attention for once."

  He looked sad. Not so sad that I parked my car and went in for a drink.

  "Raincheck. The Nona thing is real. The grapevine is real, and you know I actually have four open houses to run tomorrow. That's going to be hard enough without the fifty phone calls I'm going to have to field all day."

  "Sorry."

  "That's okay. You get to deal with Piper and Lucy. Their curiosity will be no less voracious. Lucy because she knows about our past, and Piper because she doesn't."

  "You look way too happy I'm not getting off scot-free." He leaned in and kissed my cheek. The warmth spread all the way down to my toes, yet again. "I'll take the raincheck."